田子坊

I started the day fantastically...Ok...I meant, I started the afternoon fantastically...HAHA! Since I woke up at 12pm I think...haha! Had 3 happy encounters to start my day :D

1st one...Woke up to an awesome pancake breakfast prepared by our dear surrogate mum Jamie :D Haha.

Pancake breakfast!! :)

Heart shape pancake!!

Of course the heart-shaped pancake was for Jamie's dear dear, Zhi Sheng not me, Zi Sheng. HAHA! Yes, our Chinese names differ by only 1 alphabet. HAHA!

2nd happy encounter? My very first ever 淘宝 merchandise arrived at our house doorstep! :) :D I hastily unwrapped the exterior packaging...

Shoe box :D

My BOOTS! :D

Yay! my very first pair of boots from 淘宝! :D And it's only 60元! :D :D What a steal. Taobao totally is killing the retail industry man. Haha.

Virgin picture of my boots :D

3rd happy encounter? We had guests over at our place to enjoy our pancake breakfast awesomely prepared by Jamie & Zhi Sheng :D haha.

Brunch :)

Zhi Sheng was happily flipping pancakes in the kitchen...HAHA! And he became pretty good at it. Instead of using the spatula to flip the pancake over, he'll just swing the pan and the pancake will nicely land on its back. HAHA!

He also did this in front of our guests - Shu Min, Serene, Kah Soon and Ting Yi. Haha! Ok, his pancake flippn' height wasn't that high...but high enough to get it flipped to the other side to cook. Haha.

Our destination for today? 田子坊! :D French concession was also part of Shu Min's itinerary for the day...but guess what? The French Concession turned out to be just a street by a hotel. Kthxbye. HAHA! Nevertheless, we had fun :)

Our itinerary for the day! :D

田子坊 is like Singapore's Haji Lane...It's littered with shophouses selling random, small, cutesy stuff along the street.

One of the really cool bags that caught my attention is this one...haha! It had a really witty twist to Obama's name and its depiction of that twist is also really apt.

Oba MAO! LOL LOL! :D

The first stall that really stopped us was their tao-huey stall! LOL. It's called 上海老豆花. Unlike Singapore's tao-huey, this version is much softer and more watery and they have much more ingredients to offer...

Tao-huey ingredients!!

They sell 2 types of tao huey! I also didn't know that! When it was my turn to order they asked me "甜的咸的?" And I was like "HUH." HAHAHA!

By instinct I said "甜的" because...GOT SUCH THING AS SALTY TAO HUEY MEH? Hahaha! LOL

Below is the picture of the sweet tao huey, somewhat similar to Singapore's version...just that over here, they ADD RAISINS. And the raisins make a lot of difference :) They complement the tao-huey really well.

SWEET tao-huey + RAISINS :) Raisins rock!! :D Haha!

I realized that I made a wrong choice when I looked at Zon's bowl of salty tao-huey...So many ingredients were added!! All the vege, salted vegetables, onions and whatever seasoning went into that bowl!

I tried the salty version and immediately realized that we Singaporeans have been denied the truest form of tao-huey...The salty kind...

The salty tao-huey! FANTASTIC STYLE AND TASTE! :D

After downing the salty tao huey...I felt scammed...I felt stupid for saying "甜的" and missing out on the REAL THING! HAHAHAHA!

The salty version tastes abit like Chawanmushi...and the salted cai po and whatever veges really complemented the tao-huey and its brown salty paste.

Jon & Zon with our tao huey bowls :D

Ting Yi, Shumin and myself  :)

Zon, Kah Soon, Ting Yi, Shu Min & myself still tao-huey-ing :D HAHA!

Yup, the 上海老豆花's tao-huey was really the main attraction for me...haha! The rest of the photos are just random snapshots on Zon's iPad and Jamie's camera :) In random order...

Gareth, Shumin & Me :D

A really happy Shumin, Me, Jamie, Soon Hwee & Chor Seng :D

iPad2 self-portrait of Me, Zon, Yong Qiang & Shu Min :D

Me with my 炸鸡排 :D

Shu Min, Me & Soon Hwee - random shot...haha

If you didn't realize, so far, all my photos have Shu Min in it! LOL! And before we took the photo above she was like "EHH, why I keep taking photo with you one?? Don't want take with you la..." LOL!

That was supposed to be my line lor! LOL LOL! HAHAHA! And in the end, we still took the photo..LOL!

Me, Ting Yi & Shumin :D

Yes, that's Ting Yi for you. Haha! Pearls lining her teeth all...HAHA! Ting Yi's a really spontaneous, funny, energetic and noisy girl. Haha!

Having people like her in the group is really a value-add. Haha! She's those kinda enthu, will-hype-up kinda person and yeah, we need people like that. LOL.

Ting Yi, Serene, Shumin & Me :D

In the picture above we're holding some Korean fish pancake thingy...It's like pandan waffle on the outside with filling on the inside.

I bought the 豆沙 filling which was pretty nice...but when I ate their MILK FILLING...WOW. I always order the wrong stuff eh? LOL!

OHH! There's an awesome story at the korean fish pancake stall! There were like 4 Koreans ordering the pancake and since they couldn't speak mandarin, they ran into payment problems with the Chinese counter girl.

They began bickering and the Korean girl was like using hand signs and all while the Chinese counter girl was like shouting in mandarin. Haha!

Because of this lil' skirmish, THE WHOLE QUEUE JAMMED. -.- We actually waited for like 10 whole minutes before A HERO AMONGST US EMERGED TO SAVE THE DAY..hahaha!

That hero is KAH SOON!! LOL! He suddenly decided to intervene and he began speaking Korean to the 4 Koreans!!

From there he helped them to translate and resolved the problem!! LOL! KAH SOON SIOL!! Wait until 10minutes then decide to help...a bit slow leh...HAHAHA!

What happened was the Korean girl was trying to tell the China counter girl that she have yet to receive 2 of the pancakes she ordered and paid for.

However, the counter girl interpreted her hand signs of "2! 2!" as buying an additional 2 more pancakes. So she kept demanding payment while the Korean was like "2! 2!" with her hand signs. LOL. Epic fail miscomm.

Through this, we discovered a hero amongst us! Kah Soon SPEAKS KOREAN! LOL! And he speaks French or German too I think...He was telling us he could speak 4 languages if I didn't remember wrongly. Haha!

Kah Wei & I :)

The picture above was actually instigated by Shu Min and some of them...Mainly Shu Min la...HAHA! She kept saying Kah Wei and I look alike...WOW

"Ehh, both of you look alike lehh! Both your hair same style one and your jackets also...AHAHAHA!" went Shu Min for the longest time...LOL!

So what's your verdict? Does Kah Wei look like me? HAHAHA! Initially, I was smiling in the photo but Eric was like "Ehh Jonavan, don't smile! You smile don't look like Kah Wei already!" HAHAHA!

This wasn't the first time Kah Wei was getting such a comment. LOL! Our colleagues also said that of him...that he looked very stern and serious. haha!

Kah Wei showed me their QQ chat with our China colleagues...One of them said "你看起来比较严肃, 没什么笑". HAHA!

True story bro. But Kah Wei's actually a SUPER nice guy la...He's very helpful...Back in NTU, he drove us back a couple of times and he's the movie man...HAHA! He downloads all sorts of movies and shares it with us :D hahaha!

But I must say, Kah Wei's smiling much more now. Haha. Probably after feedback from our colleagues and our GIP mates...LOL.

Here's another picture of us...and we so happen to be standing side by side again in the group photo below..HAHA!

All of us!! :) :D

And yeash, Zon was like iPad-ing all the way...like using his iPad to take photos all the way. Haha. Atas boy sia.

People use hp camera or normal camera...and...he whoops out his iPad and aims the whole rectangular device at his target, NDU style. HAHA!

YES, ZON'S ALSO FROM NDU. HAHA! Our GIP group's quite safe la...Got 2 NDU personnel - Zhi Sheng and Zon. LOL!

Here's the next most interesting merchandise sold at 田子坊...a BOMB-ALARM. LOL! It looks totally like a movie-scene bomb but in actual fact, it's an alarm clock. HAHA!

Da bomb alarm-clock :D

Here's a lil' movie scene acting by Jonavan when he's "strapped" with the bomb...Oh and...observe the 2 shots carefully :D LOL!

I GOTTA BOMB ON MEEEEE!!!

Bomb shot 2 :D HAHA!

Did you notice in the second picture, a STERN-FACED Jamie in the background?? HAHAHA! She's like "Yeah, yeah, Jonavan's in his drama-mama mode again... -.-" HAHAHA!

Random group shot by Zon...Only I was absolutely ready for this shot..LOL

Yup, that's about all we took at 田子坊. Haha. But our day is far from finished...LOL. On the train back, we decided to go over to Shu Min's place to watch MOVIE :D

And we took our first ever 花木路 gang shot! LOL! Our gang photoshoot took place right at our metro station. Haha!

The 花木路 gang at our very own metro station! :)

Take 2 at 世纪公园站 :D

Zon got pretty garang and decided to take the stairs while we were all on the escalator..haha! And being the iPad cam whore, he helped us snap an escalator shot. LOL!

Going up the escalator :D

If you didn't know, our condo, or compound, is situated next to Dorsett Hotel...So...we usually cut through that hotel when walking back home. Haha!

This time, the whole 花木路 gang walked through it LIKEABOSS. Haha! And I even took a photo with their piano :D HAHA! The background however kinda outshined me...LOL!

Me with Dorsett Shanghai Hotel Lobby piano :D

So we went back, dressed down and headed over to Shumin's for MOVIE NIGHTTT! :D :D But before the movie could begin, 3 EEE students went to set up the laptop-TV connection...haha!

Gareth, Zon & I setting up the laptop to TV connection using HDMI cable...EEE FTW! LOL LOL!!

Once that was done, I chionged the sofa because there weren't enough seats available...HAHA! There were like 15-20 people over at Shumin's place FYI...LOL!

Sofa - koped! :D LOL!

We watched the movie "Silent Hill: Revelation" which really sucked. HAHA! The scary scenes were normal, the plot was ok and the fighting scenes were pathetic. Haha!

The whole show just featured several disgusting creatures without telling you where, what, why or how they came about.

The protagonist was simply trying to find the big bad guy and she was just running around from room to room, chamber to chamber, setting to setting and at each new place, there were just weird and disgusting creatures.

The scenes hopped on and on without developing the plot on the creatures and the whole movie ended with the big bad guy getting beheaded by a random guardian whom they tried to make you think is the bad guy.

You gotta watch the show to believe and understand how lousy it is. LOL. Ok, you might be thinking "It's that boring to you because you didn't watch Silent Hill 1 and 2." THAT'S NOT A VALID CONSIDERATION. HAHA! Why?

Mid-way through the show...like 30mins into the show, everyone was like asking questions and people were even google-ing the background of the movie...HAHA!

So I took the initiative to pause the movie and got Kelvin Mak to explain the background of the whole movie...which he did VERY WELL. HAHA!

He's like some movie expert man. LOL LOL! Speaking with pure confidence and clear voice, he provided the context of the whole movie for us...HAHA!

Yup, we knew what happened before and this sequel is just...disgusting...sucky...No plot, not much action, no feel, no emotional climax...fail. LOL.

Not that I can produce a better movie, but I've watched much better. So, this falls way short of my expectation. Haha.

Yup, it's a Saturday and the next day I had church service at 8am!!! So, while the rest stayed to watch other movies, Chor Seng and I left to rest early for service the next day. haha!

Not many people stayed either...I think a total of like 4-5 people stayed? Excluding the hosts that is...duh. LOL.

Yup, that ended my day...and I accidentally uploaded this video of us having a playful scuffle at home...HAHA!

So yeah, why not watch it? Starring the THERMAL BROTHERS - casted by Zhi Sheng and Soon Hwee, attacking innocent victim, Jonavan Lee. LOL!